Patna, Aug. 28: The state government has granted permission to prosecute Ravindra Kumar, the former district statistical officer of Saharsa, who is facing corruption charges. A formal letter, in this regard, was sent by the planning and development department to the state vigilance investigation bureau on Saturday.

The development took place on the day The Telegraph came up with a report on how the delay in granting sanction worked to the advantage of the accused official, who was granted bail by the special vigilance court on Friday.

Giving details, a senior state government official, preferring anonymity, said: “The day the letter seeking permission to prosecute the official was received by the planning department, it was sent to the law department for further processing and from there it was sent to the chief minister secretariat, which too cleared the file in one day. In the return journey, the file was lying with the law department from where it came back to the planning department on Saturday only after which the permission to prosecute the officer was given.”

The official said the planning and development department, to which the accused officer belongs, never denied permission to prosecute the official.

About the delay, the official said it neither took place at the parent department nor at the CM secretariat, rather at both these offices the files were disposed of within a day. “As far as the time taken by the law department is concerned, one should keep in mind that certain legal issues do take time as one has to take into account all the aspects before giving legal opinion on such issues,” he added.

As far as the process of prosecuting a government official is concerned, the letter seeking permission for prosecution is first sent to the department to which the officer concerned belongs.

After getting the letter, the department is free to take a decision whether it would grant permission to prosecute the officer or not. If the department feels that the officer can be prosecuted, it sends the file to the law department, which after looking into the legality of the case, sends the file for the approval of the chief minister.

Once the CM secretariat approves it, the file comes back to the law department from where it is sent back to the department concerned which issues the letter giving permission for prosecution of the accused officer.

“Now that the permission for prosecuting the accused officer has been given, the vigilance bureau should produce the order in the vigilance court at the earliest to expedite the trial,” said the official.

It was during the hearing of the case on Friday in the special vigilance court, that the investigating officer of the case had informed the court that the government had not yet given permission to prosecute the officer.

After that the court admitted the bail application of the accused officer and granted him bail.

The former statistical officer is facing charge of having accepted a bribe for extending an undue favour. The vigilance bureau submitted the chargesheet against him on August 11.